Open For All:the benefits of open data in a digital age

Mark ThorleyNatural Environment Research Council

mark.thorley@nerc.ac.uk@MarkRThorley

My perspective

• I know:– A fair amount about open

access and research data management;

– A bit about scholarly publishing;

– And something about the challenges of getting research data out there and used.

Research Councils UK

£3B

www.CODATA.org

CODATA Strategy:Exploiting the Data Revolution

Exploiting the data revolution is the major priority for international science.

CODATA strategy lays out three priorities and a plan that shows we can deliver for ICSU on these priorities.

Promote intelligently open data data policies: supporting implementation of data

principles and practiceAdapt to the transformation in research data science: addressing the frontier issues of data

sciencePromote data skills, data scientists, data managers data education: capacity building (particularly in

LMICs)

New CODATA PresidentGeoffrey Boulton, FRSChair of Science as an

OpenEnterprise Report

New CODATA Executive Committee elected at GA in New Delhi, Nov

2014

Why ‘open’ ?

• Public good agenda.• Research transparency and integrity.• Expectations of a digital age.• Data intensive science.• Support for innovation and growth:

– remove barriers to access;– get the stuff out there and get it used.

The challenges of research in a digital age

Life was so much simpler in the ‘good old days’

Laurentius de Voltolina - Liber ethicorum des Henricus de AlemanniaSee: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laurentius_de_Voltolina_001.jpg

Then along came the future .…

• Schumpeterian creative destruction– The disruptive process of transformation that

accompanies innovation.• Francis Bacon (1620): comparing the invention of

printing to those of firearms and the nautical compass– These three have changed the whole face and state of the world;

first in literature, second in warfare, third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries

The digital & networked world is a real game changer

• Expectations and opportunities have changed.• A world where the expectation is ‘I want it now

and I want it for free’.• A world where anybody can ‘publish’ anything on

the web.• A world where people expect to develop services

based on other people’s material.• A world where experts have to earn trust.

Open is the new normal

• Change in expectation of availability – open will become the new normality.

• Those who say open is not an issue for them – risk becoming marginalised, overlooked and ignored.

• Responsibility of all those involved in the research process to ensure that definitive, quality assured research results and data are available to all who need them when they need them.

Re-use by business & innovators

Flood risk(www.checkmyfloodrisk.co.uk)

Radon in the cellar (www.ukradon.org)

Rembrandts in the attic

Data innovation environments

Business led exploitation

What is business looking for?

• Nationally consistent data sets from which services can be developed:– Climate, weather, air-quality, soils, land-cover.

• Tend to be data from survey or monitoring activities, not individual research data sets.

• Need to understand IP restrictions and updates.• Exploitation value is in data plus expertise:

– Role for knowledge broker / intermediary.

The future

• Open data management becomes part of the fabric of research practice.

• Those who fund research will need to fund activity and infrastructure - the ‘well-found-lab’.

• Require intelligent openness and intelligent management – can’t manage everything for ever.

• Specific support for business and innovation through ‘data hubs’.

THANK YOU